Commercial food wrapping machines provide high speed packaging for various types of food products. The machines utilize a conveyor to transfer the food product to a wrapping station where the actual high speed wrapping operation occurs. The food product is supported on an elevator platform that raises the food into contact with a layer of stretched wrapping film. After the food product has been elevated into contact with the wrapping material, a group of tucking arms folds the wrapping material under the food product to complete the wrapping procedure. The tucking arms are then removed from under the wrapped food product and the food product is pushed off of the elevator platform and on to a finished wrapped product conveyor for removal thereof. The elevator platform is then lowered and another package of unwrapped food product disposed thereon to repeat the procedure.
When the tucking arms fold the wrapping material under the food product, it is necessary that the elevator platform yield to these arms. To facilitate the tucking operation, the elevator platform is fabricated with a number of spring loaded tucking "fingers" that rotate in the direction of the tucking arm motion to allow the tucking arms to displace them. Since the food wrapping process in a production environment wraps at a rate of approximately one package every 0.1 second, it is necessary for the yielding fingers to rotate away from the tucking arms and then return to their original position at a rate exceeding the food wrapping time. Since a plurality of these fingers are normally utilized in parallel rows, it is necessary for them to mesh to provide a relatively continuous platform. In meshing, prior art fingers have exhibited a tendency to "bind" during the packaging process, that is, the leading edge of one of the fingers contacts the trailing edge of another finger. When this happens, the finger normally breaks. Although the fingers themselves are relatively inexpensive, it is necessary to stop the machines, remove and replace the damaged fingers and then begin operation again. This takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes. This "down time" in a production environment can result in a great deal of expense since the "front end" costs for these types of machines necessitates their running at virtually 100% capacity to turn the profit in addition to the fact that the machine keeps around twenty support personnel occupied. Therefore, the time required to replace the fingers becomes substantial with respect to a profitable business operation.
Therefore, there exists a need for an elevator platform that has a yieldable surface that requires less maintenance, thereby resulting in less down time.